[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[Demanih]

I checked that if you save the book in "epub", the formatting is preserved, but if you save it in "txt" (or then convert it to txt in calibre), the formatting is lost and everything becomes one line (((
Is there any way to fix this?

Thank you.

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Okay, ficbook is a bit weird--instead of using HTML tags to format story text, they use newline whitespace which requires unusual CSS to show.

[ownedbycats]

Quick question: In the AO3 section of personal.ini, I add_to_exclude_metadata some entries (e.g. I exclude "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" as it's often double-tagged next to The Original Series).

In the case I want to have them for specific stories, is there a way to undo this in a storyUrl section? (Include would mean excluding all the other entries.)

[JimmXinu]

Multi-reply

Originally Posted by Demanih

I checked that if you save the book in "epub", the formatting is preserved, but if you save it in "txt" (or then convert it to txt in calibre), the formatting is lost and everything becomes one line (((
Is there any way to fix this?

Ah. I assume everyone downloads to epub.

There isn't a fix for this in the current code. This is really ficbook being very weird.

I confirm that neither FFF's text output nor Calibre's Convert to TXT apply the unusual CSS ficbook uses during the txt output. I had hoped changing the <div> tag to a <pre> tag would work with Calibre's Convert, but it doesn't.

I might be able to add an option specifically in adapter_ficbooknet to change whitespace to tags. You'll likely lose the paragraph indents, though.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Quick question: In the AO3 section of personal.ini, I add_to_exclude_metadata. In the case I want to have them for specific stories, is there a way to undo this in a storyUrl section? (Include would mean excluding all the other entries.)

No. That's a known limitation of add_to_X.

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version Posted

2026-01-27
- adapter_storiesonlinenet: Site changed, get series number from series page now.
- adapter_ficbooknet: Add replace_text_formatting option to replace CSS paragraphing with tags, for txt output.

@Demanih - New replace_text_formatting option is on by default for ficbook using FFF's txt output. You will need to add it to your personal.ini under [ficbook.net] if you want to output epubs and then use Calibre Convert.

EDIT: Please test with a story containing headnotes if you have one. I only had one with endnotes.

[Demanih]

Yes, thanks, it's already much better, but there's still a problem with complex formatting.

https://ficbook.net/readfic/13324065 here is a small fic with complex formatting, you can test the main points on it.

The example is as in the original (when copying directly from the site):

Spoiler:

Тема 1. Зачем нужна кнопка «Отформатировать текст»

Приветствую вас, мои дорогие авторы, либо читатели, заглянувшие на огонёк из-за интересующей темы.

«Зачем нужна кнопка „Отформатировать текст”»?


По моим наблюдениям, некоторые авторы пренебрегают кнопкой «Отформатировать текст», когда пишут свои работы. Почему? А потому что пользователи не знают и даже не предполагают, что она делает и как за мгновение улучшает текст, лишая автора этих забот.

«Я нажимал, но ничего не произошло», «Ну, иногда форматирую, иногда нет», «А, правда? Эта кнопка там не просто так?», «Если честно, я боюсь нажимать, ибо думаю, что она мне испортит текст», — и не такое я слышала. Узнали себя? Поэтому предлагаю сейчас раз и навсегда разобраться, чем же кнопка «Отформатировать текст» полезна, а также почему же её нужно не бояться, а любить и обожать.

Как я считаю, нагляднее всего будет видно на примере:

- Привет , ты⠀ видел новую серию "Игры Престолов"? - сказал Саша.

Он ⠀ зашёл в комнату с одной целью ⠀- рассказать о своих впечатлениях ⠀девушке.

- М-м... я ⠀никогда даже не слышала о таком сериале, - отозвалась Катя.

Что мы тут видим? Давайте разберём пошагово.

1. Использование дефисов (-) вместо тире (—).

Хочу раз и навсегда рассказать про разницу между всеми видами этих «чёрточек».

An example of how to save to a file (using the functions of the ficbook itself):

Spoiler:

========== Тема 1. Зачем нужна кнопка «Отформатировать текст» ==========

Приветствую вас, мои дорогие авторы, либо читатели, заглянувшие на огонёк из-за интересующей темы.

«Зачем нужна кнопка „Отформатировать текст”»?
По моим наблюдениям, некоторые авторы пренебрегают кнопкой «Отформатировать текст», когда пишут свои работы. Почему? А потому что пользователи не знают и даже не предполагают, что она делает и как за мгновение улучшает текст, лишая автора этих забот.

«Я нажимал, но ничего не произошло», «Ну, иногда форматирую, иногда нет», «А, правда? Эта кнопка там не просто так?», «Если честно, я боюсь нажимать, ибо думаю, что она мне испортит текст», — и не такое я слышала. Узнали себя? Поэтому предлагаю сейчас раз и навсегда разобраться, чем же кнопка «Отформатировать текст» полезна, а также почему же её нужно не бояться, а любить и обожать.

Как я считаю, нагляднее всего будет видно на примере:

- Привет , ты⠀ видел новую серию "Игры Престолов"? - сказал Саша.

Он ⠀ зашёл в комнату с одной целью ⠀- рассказать о своих впечатлениях ⠀девушке.

- М-м... я ⠀никогда даже не слышала о таком сериале, - отозвалась Катя.

Что мы тут видим? Давайте разберём пошагово.

1. Использование дефисов (-) вместо тире (—).

Хочу раз и навсегда рассказать про разницу между всеми видами этих «чёрточек».

An example of how to save to a file (with FFF functions):

Spoiler:

Зачем нужна кнопка «Отформатировать текст», или Форматирование текста

Приветствую вас, мои дорогие авторы, либо читатели, заглянувшие на огонёк из-за интересующей темы.«Зачем нужна кнопка „Отформатировать текст”»?По моим наблюдениям, некоторые авторы пренебрегают кнопкой «Отформатировать текст», когда пишут свои работы. Почему? А потому что пользователи не знают и даже не предполагают, что она делает и как за мгновение улучшает текст, лишая автора этих забот.

«Я нажимал, но ничего не произошло», «Ну, иногда форматирую, иногда нет», «А, правда? Эта кнопка там не просто так?», «Если честно, я боюсь нажимать, ибо думаю, что она мне испортит текст», — и не такое я слышала. Узнали себя? Поэтому предлагаю сейчас раз и навсегда разобраться, чем же кнопка «Отформатировать текст» полезна, а также почему же её нужно не бояться, а любить и обожать.

Как я считаю, нагляднее всего будет видно на примере:- Привет , ты⠀ видел новую серию "Игры Престолов"? - сказал Саша.Он ⠀ зашёл в комнату с одной целью ⠀- рассказать о своих впечатлениях ⠀девушке.- М-м... я ⠀никогда даже не слышала о таком сериале, - отозвалась Катя.Что мы тут видим? Давайте разберём пошагово.1. Использование дефисов (-) вместо тире (—).Хочу раз и навсегда рассказать про разницу между всеми видами этих «чёрточек».

I hope you can beat this crooked formatting, thank you.

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Ah. I assume everyone downloads to epub.
There isn't a fix for this in the current code. This is really ficbook being very weird.
I confirm that neither FFF's text output nor Calibre's Convert to TXT apply the unusual CSS ficbook uses during the txt output. I had hoped changing the <div> tag to a <pre> tag would work with Calibre's Convert, but it doesn't.
I might be able to add an option specifically in adapter_ficbooknet to change whitespace to tags. You'll likely lose the paragraph indents, though.

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version Posted

2026-01-29
- adapter_ficbooknet: Change how replace_text_formatting converts to text.
- BrowserCache: Add comment about py2 and gzip.decompress
- Don't give format section warnings for fix_excess_space

Originally Posted by Demanih

Yes, thanks, it's already much better, but there's still a problem with complex formatting.

...

I hope you can beat this crooked formatting, thank you.

I make no promises.

That story mixes HTML tags in with the text formatting. FFF's stripHTML() condenses all whitespace around tags, which includes the newlines around <i> and <b> tags. I've changed to a different html->text method.

I'm seeing some oddness in the text output where \ characters appear for no obvious reason:

Spoiler:

Как я считаю, нагляднее всего будет видно на примере:

\- Привет , ты⠀ видел новую серию "Игры Престолов"? - сказал Саша.

Он ⠀ зашёл в комнату с одной целью ⠀- рассказать о своих впечатлениях
⠀девушке.

\- М-м... я ⠀никогда даже не слышала о таком сериале, - отозвалась Катя.

Что мы тут видим? Давайте разберём пошагово.

1\. Использование дефисов (-) вместо тире (—).

But because this happens to text output for other sites too, it's not directly related. I will look into it, though.

Spoiler:

1\. Some text


2\. some more text


\- even more text

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I'm seeing some oddness in the text output where \ characters appear for no obvious reason:

Spoiler:

Как я считаю, нагляднее всего будет видно на примере:

\- Привет , ты⠀ видел новую серию "Игры Престолов"? - сказал Саша.

Он ⠀ зашёл в комнату с одной целью ⠀- рассказать о своих впечатлениях
⠀девушке.

\- М-м... я ⠀никогда даже не слышала о таком сериале, - отозвалась Катя.

Что мы тут видим? Давайте разберём пошагово.

1\. Использование дефисов (-) вместо тире (—).

But because this happens to text output for other sites too, it's not directly related. I will look into it, though.

Spoiler:

1\. Some text


2\. some more text


\- even more text

This is caused by html2text escaping things that it sees as Markdown. There isn't any option to not do that.

FFF's txt output has worked this way since at least Jan 2018 and probably longer. So I'm not going to panic about this.

Downloading to epub and converting to txt (or any format other than epub) in Calibre is still the recommended approach.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Quick question: In the AO3 section of personal.ini, I add_to_exclude_metadata some entries (e.g. I exclude "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" as it's often double-tagged next to The Original Series).

In the case I want to have them for specific stories, is there a way to undo this in a storyUrl section? (Include would mean excluding all the other entries.)

I've been thinking about this, but I still don't have any good ideas on a generic opposite or undo for add_to_X settings.

For your specific case, you might use a conditional key ('&&') clause to not apply those lines to certain storyIds. Ugly, but possible.

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version Posted

2026-01-30
- Plugin BG settings: Remove 'old' vs 'new' BG handling verbiage

Should be last test version before release on Feb 1.

Unrelated to test version:

FYI, I did some testing and I don't expect any issues with my plugins and Calibre 9.

However, I'm not switching myself for daily use yet because Calibre Sync needs to be updated to handle Calibre's library DB changes in Cal9.

[texasnightowl]

I'm back. I mentioned a while back I'm starting over and I've got AO3 where I'm pretty satisfied. May still try to tweak some things but everything is working.

Now...fanfiction.net

I have it functional but a question.

What is the "best" way to download? I currently have it setup with the browser cache stuff. Which worked fine for the one story I tried so far. But...it was a long story and so it opened 49 tabs in my browser! Feels like that could be a memory issue waiting to happen! Is there anyway to have it open each chapter in the same single tab at least instead of a new tab for each chapter?

I see stuff in the default ini about a proxy and flaresolver? Pros and cons to those instead of browser cache?

[Ghostcat]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

I'm back. I mentioned a while back I'm starting over and I've got AO3 where I'm pretty satisfied. May still try to tweak some things but everything is working.

Now...fanfiction.net

I have it functional but a question.

What is the "best" way to download? I currently have it setup with the browser cache stuff. Which worked fine for the one story I tried so far. But...it was a long story and so it opened 49 tabs in my browser! Feels like that could be a memory issue waiting to happen! Is there anyway to have it open each chapter in the same single tab at least instead of a new tab for each chapter?

I see stuff in the default ini about a proxy and flaresolver? Pros and cons to those instead of browser cache?

Instead of trying to open a large number of pages, I use the WebtoEpub browser plugin. This loads the pages into the cache. When the download is finished and the SAVE box appears, I click CANCEL and use FFF to load the book into Calibre.

Note that if you don't change the Delay per chapter in ms value in the Advanced Options, downloading will pause for an extended period about every 20 pages. I have it set at 3000ms and it works perfectly.

You don't have to have each page in a new tab, just click NEXT. As soon as you open a page it is put in the cache. What you do need to watch out for, is if a page goes through CloudFlare you will need to re-load the page. Easiest way is to click NEXT then PREV.

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by Ghostcat

Instead of trying to open a large number of pages, I use the WebtoEpub browser plugin. This loads the pages into the cache. When the download is finished and the SAVE box appears, I click CANCEL and use FFF to load the book into Calibre.

...

You don't have to have each page in a new tab, just click NEXT. As soon as you open a page it is put in the cache. What you do need to watch out for, is if a page goes through CloudFlare you will need to re-load the page. Easiest way is to click NEXT then PREV.

Thanks! I will have a look at it!

But do I understand you right that you have to manually click next for each chapter/page? So a 50 chapter story you'll have to hit next 49 times? Still, I'll look into it and see how it goes!

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

Now...fanfiction.net

...

I see stuff in the default ini about a proxy and flaresolver? Pros and cons to those instead of browser cache?

We have been struggling with ffnet for +5 years now. The options presented are basically all we have.

I assume you are using open_pages_in_browser. You can close those tabs once they've finished loading the page. No need to keep them open. Considering the stories people tell of having hundreds of tabs open, and how 'heavy' modern web sites are, I assume the browsers address they issue.

If there's an option for opening in the same tab, it's going to be in the browser--I've not looked for one, but I feel like I remember one. OTOH, I remember browsers before tabs. Having a browser you use only for FFF BrowserCache (chosen by Calibre openers_by_scheme tweak) should be possible.

I just recently checked with nsapa who says fanfictionnet_ff_proxy still works, but I haven't tried it any time recently.

Flaresolverr, in my past experience, doesn't work with ffnet. They keep their 'threat level(?)' too high. But again, I haven't tried it any time recently.

See https://github.com/JimmXinu/FanFicFa.../ProxyFeatures

[JimmXinu]

New Version Released

Version 4.54.0 - 2026-02-01
- Update Translations
- Plugin BG settings: Remove 'old' vs 'new' BG handling verbiage
- adapter_ficbooknet: Change how replace_text_formatting converts to text.
- BrowserCache: Add comment about py2 and gzip.decompress
- Don't give format section warnings for fix_excess_space
- adapter_storiesonlinenet: Site changed, get series number from series page now.
- adapter_ficbooknet: Add replace_text_formatting option to replace CSS paragraphing with tags, for txt output.
- adapter_royalroadcom: Fix login failure reporting #1302
- Image Handling Changes See wiki page.
- base_xenforo2forum_adapter: Fix include_nonauthor_poster: Had left testing conditional

[Atherton25]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

Thanks! I will have a look at it!

But do I understand you right that you have to manually click next for each chapter/page? So a 50 chapter story you'll have to hit next 49 times? Still, I'll look into it and see how it goes!

No, you click on the icon to open the webtoepub interface, click "Pack Epub" (assuming all the settings are already preloaded, like the timing previously mentioned) and it will download the whole story slowly. This works with other sites as well, such as scribblehub - though with scribblehub you still need flaresolverr for the table of contents page.

It works really well if you have a long fic you can just walk away for 10 minutes or so and come back then add it to FFF.

Edit: Also works well for updates, if there's more than a couple pages. You open the interface, uncheck the first page you don't want, scroll down to the last page you don't want, hold shift and click on it. This would say remove Chapters 2-20 and leave whatever is after that. So if you haven't updated a story for a while, you don't have to download what you have again, just the pages you don't.